From the Chiasmus archive: "threeASFOUR. Spring Ready-To-Wear 2022 – New York Fashion Week". September 11th, 2021

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(Images: threeASFOUR 2021)

In the time-line of 2000’s avant-garde, particularly in combining the innovation of 3D printing for fashion design and the beginning of digitalized neo-futuristic looks, the American designers for the brand threeASFOUR; Gabriel Asfour, Angela Donhauser and Adi Gil have been at the forefront with their definitive and intriguing perspective of science fiction inspired avant-garde styles, which have also been created to be used as functional and wearable ensembles rather than solely exhibition pieces. However, in 2008 the trio were able to have several design pieces exhibited at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City under the “Superheroes: Fashion and Body” exhibit, ensuring that their take on fusing science and futurism as a progressive philosophy within fashion design, does indeed pre-date the Belgium Couture designer Iris Van Herpen, who, in a further elaboration of the said themes has also hallmarked precision 3D printing as an evolving process. Yet, Asfour, Donhauser and Gil have been pushing the boundaries of their unique aesthetics for over 14 years, and, I say this in a most respectful manner, surpassing the Belgium designer, since their debut Spring 2007 show at New York Fashion week. 

With runway shows slowly coming back to life in a post Covid-19 world, threeASFOUR have returned to the runway for their Ready-to-Wear Spring 2022 collection. Naming their collection “Kundalini” which in Indian Etymology is also known as the Shakti (divine feminine energy), the trio of threeASFOUR have split the collection into color coordinated Chakras while using the late mathematician Benoit Mandelbrot’s Fractals as a focal point for their print work and 3D printed designs. There is no denying Asfour, Donhauser and Gil’s interest in the spiritual and esoteric as Asfour decreed for their latest array, “There is something happening on the planet right now; it’s a spiritual awakening”. And maybe it is this merging of technology and the sciences, while combining the metaphysical to the physics of life, which is, for the most part, being lead by art and fashion. Are we seeing a prelude to what could be a conjunction of spirituality and the sciences? To which fellow threeASFOUR designer Adi has offered a clue to the concepts on display for Spring 2022, saying, and I quote, “I think these days more than ever, it’s always important to remember that we are all connected, no matter where we are from”. 

For their latest RTW collection, with its represented colors of the Chakras, the threeASFOUR collective have spread over 34 pieces that might appear delicate in its overall presentation, yet at the same time, in a paradoxical way, each design reflects, aesthetically, a deeper resilience. The fractal symmetry and flowing pattern work aligns itself exceptionally well, whilst intertwined with its 3D printed accessories, much like the Hindu mythos of the Kundalini, which the collection is theme from, that is of a coiled snake like presence that lies at the root of all human beings – a dormant spiritual entity, yearning to be awaken.

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(A.Glass 2021)

Couture 2023 review soon.